Laurie Evans did not take-up cricket seriously until he was 15. Until then, as scrumhalf for Harlequins' academy and South of England, he presumed he would play rugby professionally alongside his school-friend Danny Cipriani.

But then he suffered a series of shoulder injuries and, forced to re-think his plans, started to take his cricket more seriously. Under the guidance of Whitgift School coaches, David Ward and Neil Kendrick, he developed from an uncomplicated seamer into a stylish batsman, and was quickly drafted into the Surrey Academy. From there he went to Durham University to progress his cricket under the guidance of Graeme Fowler.

Evans made a century for Durham MCCU in just his second first-class match - against Lancashire - and dropped out of university after a year to take his chances with Surrey.

The move backfired, though, when he fell out of favour with the then director of cricket, Chris Adams, and despite prolific run-scoring in the 2nd XI - he scored seven second team centuries in 2010 alone - he was released by the club in July and joined Warwickshire on trial. After scoring another century in his second 2nd XI match, he forced his way into the first team before the end of the season and was quickly offered a one-year deal.

While he was to endure the best part of another two seasons of second-team cricket - at the start of 2013 he had played over 100 second team games and scored 20 100s, but had only played eight Championship games in the six seasons since his first-class debut - he eventually broke through in 2013. He scored three first-class centuries and 950 first-class runs at an average of 50.

While he lost his place in Warwickshire's Championship side in 2014 - some discomfort against the short ball was exploited by quick bowlers - he produced some outstanding performances in limited-overs cricket. He was man-of-the-match when Birmingham won the final of the NatWest T20 Blast for his 28-ball half-century and thrashed a 15-ball 43 against Surrey (in the Royal London One-Day Cup) and 69 from 43 balls to help Birmingham to a crucial victory over Yorkshire in the Blast.

After assessing his options - he was understood to be close to joining Nottinghamshire - he recommitted himself to Warwickshire on a three-year deal at the end of the 2014 season.
George Dobell